For Matthew Verich, all the threads came together during his sophomore year at Yale. "I found my people that fall," said Verich, who is graduating this spring with a bachelor's degree in neuroscience and a certificate in Spanish.
His "people" at Yale have included spirited jazz musicians, an inspirational colleague in a neuroimmunology lab, and classmates exploring their religious faith.
As a first-year student, Verich, who comes from Alexandria, Virginia, sampled a variety of different courses as he searched for his academic niche. During that second year, the path narrowed as he found a connection to science and a growing commitment to medicine.
"I had never taken biology, but I was definitely curious about the field, so I took a class," Verich says. "I had taken chemistry, and knew I liked it. I also like psychology, because I enjoy thinking about how people think. So, I said, 'Let's try to combine them all,' and I went into neuroscience."
A summer internship in the Mandel-Brehm Lab, a research lab at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) that explores interactions between the nervous system and immune system, further shaped Verich's interest. There, he worked alongside and drew inspiration from a Nigerian student whose path to medicine required extraordinary persistence, including overcoming poverty and other barriers.
"He was way ahead of me," Verich recalls. "He was already studying for the MCAT [the Medical College Admission Test] and approaching the whole process with a level of focus I hadn't really seen before. His dedication was incredible. It showed me what it looked like to pursue this path with purpose."
